As for shill bidding, that happens at in person auctions as well.

At least at regular auctions (depending on crowd size and your familiarity with the bidders) you can see who is bidding against you; strangers would stand out...if they keep bidding high and no one else with you knows them, dump it on them.

they have a facebook group called thrifting with the boys movieman , and i would recomend you join (free) ive picked up a ton of knowledge

I saw that in their bios. Thanks for recommendation!

I ended up with a subscription to Worthpoint and I can say don't waste your money. It mostly gives you the price that an item sold on ebay for in the last five years. I don't use it very often.

That's what some of the reviewers said in the link above. Thanks for the confirmation.

A little more info on the unit: It had been in storage for decades until the owner died.  And there was another visible tool chest towards the back.

Ten years ago I bought a similar looking locker though it had more mechanic's type stuff showing.
Another guy and I duked it out until I got it for $800. That was a lot of money then but the two Snap-On cabinets were part of the attraction.

When I got into them they were both EMPTY.....but, the guy had put all his SO and MAC tools into an old wiper blade cabinet and put the opening parts toward the wall at the back of the unit. Made out good on that despite the high price. Today a locker like that would easily go for $1500 to $2,000 in my area depending on the crowd.

In my area I couldn't get that locker for what I would pay for it, but I can tell you that someone here would pay about $750 or so just based on the toolbox let alone the mystery boxes and whatever could be seen if it were a "live" auction.

People here pay that much because the typical locker sells for about $250 and doesn't have even 1/3 of that much showing. That's why I got out of buying lockers; too much money for too little product.

I like that show. I think it's fun to see what they pick up. They definitely don't pick up the types of items I would but it does make me think about looking at different things.

That's true for me too.  I buy mostly tools, electronics and industrial items but I see plenty of the stuff they buy so I am thinking the best thing I have learned from the show is to expand my horizons.

If I can buy stuff cheaply enough and make some scores on even a few of them, it will pay off and the stuff that doesn't sell can be donated, sold at a flea market (maybe) or sold at a yard sale.

Still, like you, I am going to find it hard to buy a tie with paw-prints on it, or something of that sort.

My best toy pick was a Marx WWII era train set; army engine, cars (searchlight, tank carrier flat car with wind-up tank).  Paid $100 (years ago) sold for $400 on eBay.  Old toys are neat but I have bought Marx stuff that hasn't sold as well (that is, as well as I hoped !)

I haven't seen the show......are they selling in their own store or something too?  I don't see them making a living just on what is selling on ebay recently.......

I've watched 2 episodes of I think 3 available. So far no store of their own is shown. In the 2nd episode they went to Atlanta, GA to shop. Of course the airplane tickets, etc aren't shown in the expenses which take away from the profits.

If they spend $28.75 the "spent" tag pops up showing $28 and then the "projected" sale amount pops up with whatever they think they'll get...maybe $240 or something on the $28.  At least that is a little better than the Storage Wars renderings. Then when they sell the stuff (in a speeded up process on eBay) they break it out to the profit level too...I don't think Storage Wars really did that, and it was so faked up anyway it didn't matter.

So far I like this one because it has exposed me to a few new items I might look for or just run across.
I don't think I've really found a good buy in an antique mall and they pretty much didn't either. Generally those places are run by people who know what they've got and are looking to sell to the end buyer.

I and other pickers like the flea markets, thrift stores, garage sales, piece by piece auctions where the prices are better and the profit potential is higher.

This show is a step down (in several ways) from American Pickers, but still somewhat enjoyable...at least for a while. Who knows how long it will last. Doesn't have much of a cast, but then neither does American Pickers.